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I just learned how to crash my mid-2007 Black Macbook by switching ''Others'' ''Read Only'' permissions to ''None'' via the Mac HD Info window after foolishly presuming that it might avoid the machine being hacked due to a Yahoo account of mine having been hacked recently.

I've been going round in circles for the past few days trying to figure how to re-set the 'Others' permissions back and have gone through all the standard procedures I could find but kept getting the same outcome, i.e,

The machine boots chimes then a grey screen displaying the apple icon appears
then the screen turns blue and the wheel turns round - then disappears for a second - then comes back again and endlessly repeats like it's stuck ...?

I've tried booting from the orig install disc (Leapard OSX 10.4) and neither that or re-setting the perimeter ram or booting in safe mode or trying to boot the macbook in Target mode to boot from my (pre intel) G5 tower - via fire wire worked. Just keep getting the Grey/apple icon screen then the blue screen and turning wheel.

Today I found this excellent (macnn) site and a discussion about the problem I'm experiencing

While I was trying to get my head round the discussion and unix code - I thought I should try removing one of the 1GB ram chips from the black macbook to check if that made any difference?

I removed a 1GB ram chip, put the battery back, then I started up the macbook and after the chime I pressed: option control s the screen turned black and what I think is called the terminal or the shell window appeared and white text scrolled down the page -

yippee signs of life

can anyone advise what I should type to cause the ''Others'' option to revert back to